Still dissolving!

Tuesday 4th May 2010
The delay in posting is because I actually left my computer in school plugged into the power! What an honest lot we all are! Still here!

The rain continues to pour down in completely unacceptable quantities and my mood sinks as well!

Driving on the motorways I am continually passed by people who obviously have not noticed that there is standing water and the danger of aquaplaning is high – and the motorcyclists behave as usual! It makes driving a breath-taking experience; though it does nothing for the general state of one’s nerves!

It has now been raining uninterruptedly for two days. I willed myself to see an almost imperceptible brightness over the hills that surround Barcelona while I was driving to school. I took this to be a positive sign that better weather was approaching, and I still believe this in spite of the newspaper promising me yet another day of rain. The only thing that we can look forward to is a day which is described as having heavy rain “showers” which does at least give one the hope that there might be some sort of intermission between the extended periods of dampness!

I have decided to throw a life time of shopping experience to the winds (or the rains) and buy all the birthday presents in El Corte Ingles and hope that they will not rip me off. The service in the store is so nice (that really is the only word that one can use) that it makes the high prices almost acceptable. Also, I have fooled myself enough to believe this, given the economic crisis that we are in it is more than likely that the prices in this prestigious store are keenly competitive and I will do no better elsewhere, even with extensive searching. I do honestly believe! Almost!

My teaching day is more than half way through though, given the reckless rain, it doesn’t feel like it – and I have run out of my tea bags in this building. It just keeps on getting worse.

Last night was a meal and a meeting to discuss The Dream and to discuss further attempts to alert the authorities to the full horror that is The School That Sacked Me. We are compiling a dossier to present to the authorities – and a sorry story of unprofessional viciousness it is. It seems totally astonishing to me that an institution so markedly unfit for purpose on oh-so-many levels should still be functioning after the regular annual catastrophe of the end of the school year when the staff that do not leave in disgust are winnowed out by the completely unthinking, uncaring management. But, year after year it goes on! Perhaps, as we say to our deluded selves, this year will make the difference.

Wednesday 5th May 2010
The first shreds of blue in the sky and an actual diminution in the precipitation from same. Although I would not describe the weather as good, it is certainly better than it has been for the last few days.

I feel very smug as all presents have been bought and all are packed. A general distribution will take place during the weekend which, given the number of people who could be involved, might take place in Castelldefels – though I have a sneaking suspicion that it won’t.

Last night I read an Anthony Horowitz book called “Snakehead” which is one of the Alex Ryder books. This teenage spy has now had six adventures and, although the technology and science are twenty-first century they are basically a Boys’ Own Paper old-fashioned adventure story. The print is big and the pages turn easily and you can see the film which could be made from it. Its level of believability is zero, but I suppose that is not the point of a book like this. Undemanding and enjoyable.

I have now Been Into The Pool twice – probably just as well that I went in over the weekend as there has been no opportunity since to have anything like a civilized swim in the lashing, torrential rain to which we have been subjected. If the weather is only half way decent I promise myself another immersion when I get home – this is, after all, my early finish.

I called into the supermarket on my way home last night and, as I was unpacking the goods, I saw my next door neighbour making her bizarre way towards her house.

She wasn’t really bizarre but the sight of her leading her crippled dog in its little chariot is a little more than strange. The creature has his back legs strapped to a wheeled platform and his back paws protected with tape as they drag somewhat on the ground as he trundles along. So, there is a woman leading a creation from a painting by Hieronymus Bosch with me trying studiously to ignore her as her menagerie of mutts infuriates me by its incessant production of howls, yelps, yaps, barks and other extraneous noises.

She however made her way resolutely towards me and introduced herself as my neighbour saying that she had seen me many times and was delighted to meet me face to face. She also said that if there was anything she could do, I would only have to ask. My first thought was “destroy your dogs!” but I wasn’t sure what form of “obliterate” I would have to use in Spanish to make my meaning clear. In fact I was disarmed by her approach and put out of my mind that I had rung her door phone the previous night to try and get her to shut up the mournful and demented yelp of one of her dogs. There was a light on in the upstairs bedroom but no one came to answer the door.

Now, after this personal contact, I feel that my justified ire about her baying hounds has, in some way been compromised. Damn human politeness to hell! Which is also where I would like to see the dogs consigned!

I am now running out of the books which I acquired as a result of the Sant Jordi book shop and shall soon have recourse to the more intellectually demanding contents of the classics in my library which I have not read.

I did start a volume of short stories by Anatole France which appear to me to be beautifully written (as far as I can tell from the translation) but strangely irrelevant. I shall reserve further judgement until I am further into the volume.

Meanwhile I have the duty of making birthday cards ahead of me. The giving of cards is not the highly developed waste of money that it is in the UK, so I have had recourse to some blank cards and the collection of bits and pieces that I have acquired to produce “handmade” masterpieces. I think, at present, that I am partially stymied by the fact that I use Pritt to try and bring everything together and for some of the things that I try and stick Pritt does not have the ruthless adhesion that I require! Where is the solvent packed Bostic when you need it!

But first a swim!